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5 good reasons to get yourself an ad blocker (and 3 to turn it off)

by
Gonzalo Torres
on
April 18, 2017

Ad blockers are so hot right now. Designed for desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones, these apps and browser extensions give you the web content you are after while removing the blinking, flashing ads.

So should you get one? To help you make up your mind, we give you the reasons why you want to get an ad blocker… and the reasons why you don’t.

An ad blocker will help you remove many online ads and reduce the opportunity for malvertising attacks. But ad blockers don’t block all ads – in fact, many companies pay good money to ad blocking developers in order to have their ads “whitelisted” (Adblock Plus, we’re looking at you). So you should take a few complementary steps to make sure you’re truly protected.

2. It stops ad servers from tracking you

Ad servers don’t just deliver ads to your browser – they also like to keep an eye on what you do online and gather all sorts of personal information about you and your habits that can then be sold to third parties, or used to send you even more targeted advertising. Ad blockers claim to stop ad servers from being able to track you.

3. It makes your pages load faster

When your ad blocker stops the analytics code, text and imagery that comes with every online ad, your browser is free to concentrate on loading the actual content of the site you want to visit – say, the article you want to read or the video you want to stream – without distractions.

4. It makes your data plan last longer (and saves you money)

This is particularly true for those who like their mobile browsing experience ad-free. Some tests have shown that, while visiting news sites, more than half of your mobile data is chewed up by ads! Although results vary wildly from site to site, once you take online ads out of the equation, there is just a lot less data to download – which can be good news for your pocket if you are on a lean data plan.

5. It can majorly declutter your browsing experience

The obvious main benefit of using and ad blocker is, well, no ads. You get cleaner websites, no annoying pop-ups, no sudden and unwelcome sound effects… Replacing all the ads with pleasant, reader-friendly white space can make the time you spend online feel like a radically different experience. Like letting Marie Kondo loose on your browser.

If everything surrounding ad blockers sounds wonderful at this point, it’s because they are generally helpful, decent tools to have. It pays off to install one, is what we’re saying. But like everything else in life, ad blockers have a not-so-fresh side you should be aware of.

So then, the cons:

1. It can make important features and content disappear

Tales abound of ad blockers wrecking the user experience in all sorts of websites, from flight booking engines to online shopping retailers, to the point that the site becomes unusable. Shopping carts, built-in customer support instant messaging apps, and even entire product pages have been swallowed whole by over-eager blockers.

Fortunately, it is easy to get around this by “whitelisting” select sites - adding them to a list of websites that the ad blocker will not touch. Unfortunately, it’s a textbook case of “you don’t know what you don’t know”: if you can’t see the feature in the first place, you can’t possibly know it’s missing. Keeping your ad blocker switched on means a likely trade-off between an ad-free browsing session and a fully functional one.

2. It may sell your browsing data to third parties

Remember how we told you many ad blockers stop ad servers from tracking what you do online? The flipside is that some ad blockers themselves are the ones doing the tracking instead, and sending or selling the data to third parties. Yay. You’ve been warned.

3. It may be the spawn of Satan, and you its unwitting minion

Alright, not that bad. But ad blockers live in an ethical twilight zone, in that they pose an existential threat to many independent media outlets who rely on online advertising for their revenue. Even the big guys in the media landscape have taken a hit.

Ultimately, it is up to you to find that ethical sweet spot between protecting yourself from the dangers and irritations of online advertising, and letting digital media remain viable and thrive. Personally, we recommend a policy of “smart whitelisting”: make sure it’s switched off for those sites you want to support.